Would NA Teams Have Performed Better Than EU At IEM Katowice?

The IEM World Championships in Katowice showcased the best teams Europe had to offer, as well as a few other participants from across the globe. Although limited compared to the level of competition of the Intel Extreme Masters of recent years, the LMS’s Flash Wolves ultimately emerged victorious with a 2-0 sweep over Europe’s G2 eSports in the Finals – a major disappointment for a region sending their three best teams to this event… but would the results would have been different had the tournament been stacked with NA teams instead?

This was the tournament Europe was supposedly destined to take. Playing in their home region, Europe was able to send their three best teams to IEM in G2 eSports, Unicorns of Love, and H2K-Gaming. Eventually sending two teams to the semi-finals along with Korea’s ROX Tigers and the LMS’s Flash Wolves, dreams of an entirely European final affair were destroyed when Flash Wolves came back to steal the series from H2K-Gaming. After defeating G2 on the first day of the tournament, Flash Wolves once again bested them in the Finals to claim the crown of IEM Champions.

As the EU vs NA debate inevitably continues to rage on, let’s flip the script to NA for this tournament. Imagine that instead of Katowice, the IEM World Championship is being played in front of a sell-out crowd in Boston, with no European teams present, replaced instead NA’s three best in Team SoloMid, Cloud9, and FlyQuest eSports.

If we strictly replace the European teams with North American teams based upon their current records (TSM ahead of C9 based on the recent series), our new groups would be as follows;

Group A consisting of ROX Tigers, M19, FlyQuest eSports, and Hong Kong eSports.

Group B consisting of Kongdoo Monster, Cloud9, Team SoloMid, and Flash Wolves.

Source: ESL

Team SoloMid head into the tournament on a high after defeating both Cloud9 and FlyQuest in the previous week. The biggest adaptation of note is the significant improvement of the rosters shot calling, something that can be seen when examining their comms; Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell has begun to assert himself. Likely the strongest NA team coming in to the tournament, they receive a tough draw having to play Flash Wolves in the first game of the tournament.

Cloud9 enter the tournament at their lowest point of the season. Entering last week with a perfect record, they fell to both TSM and Phoenix1 for an 0-2 week, making uncharacteristic mistakes in the mid/late game. C9 will need to fall back on the strength of their coaching staff, specifically head coach ‎Bok “Reapered” Han-gyu, to quickly fix their mistakes and have them prepared for the tourney.

Another NA team entering the tournament on a low, FlyQuest also suffered a 2-0 week at the hands of TSM and the surging Team Dignitas. Questionable decisions in the pick/ban phase created situations for FlyQuest that their superior shot-calling could not pull them out of. Team leader Hai “Hai” Lam continues to impress on picks such as Orianna and would need to have a strong tournament for FlyQuest to advance. Fortuitously, they were drawn into a group with the two teams considered weakest in the tournament, M19 and HKE.

Source: Riot Games Flickr

Flash Wolves first game of the tourney against G2 may have been the best single-game performance of the event, and assuming they brought the same level of preparation and execution to the first game against TSM, Flash Wolves would likely secure the top seed coming out of Group B, followed by Team SoloMid.

In Group A, FlyQuest would likely continue their recent struggles from the NA LCS, yet still perform well enough to overcome M19 and HKE and advance as the second seed from Group A. This would leave very familiar pairings for the semi-finals, with ROX Tigers vs. TSM, Flash Wolves vs. FlyQuest, all set up nicely for a TSM vs Flash Wolves rematch in the finals.

TSM has shown a resurgence in the past few weeks, but that should not overshadow Flash Wolves’ incredible tournament performance at IEM Katowice. It is reasonable to expect a Flash Wolves victory in a three games series against TSM.

Source: lolesports

Looking at the potential of the Intel Extreme Masters with NA teams in place of the EU teams, it’s still very likely that Flash Wolves would have won the tournament. Keeping this in mind, its hard to be overly critical of an EU team being unable to capture the IEM Championship. It is very easy to condemn EU for their perceived failure in Katowice, but in reality, Flash Wolves played like a top international team and had a very consistent, well-executed tournament from their draft phases to their play on the rift.

While the relative strength of Europe and NA is still unknown, the looming Mid-Season Invitational will give us an opportunity to see the best from each region go head to head. G2 eSports look to be that team once again for Europe, whereas the NA champion seems less certain. Either way, we need only wait for a clearer picture of where the regions stand.

The 7 Things IEM Katowice Taught Us… That We Already Knew

IEM Takeaways

IEM Katowice helped confirm much of what we had already suspected.
Here are just a few of the takeaways.

Sven And Mithy Are Not Dominant

After being crowned the "best bot lane in the west", IEM proved that G2's bot lane is not the force they were heralded to be. Consistently outperformed by the bot lane of Flash Wolves, what was supposed to be a strength for G2 instead proved to be a soft spot.

Maple Was The Best Mid In Attendance

Despite Europe's famed mid lane talent pool, it is Flash Wolves' Maple who claims the title of the best at IEM. While the MVP was given to G2's PerkZ before the Finals, Maple turned in a dominant performance across the tournament.

Karsa Is A Top International Talent

Flash Wolves' Karsa may be one of the best players the LMS has ever seen.
At IEM he was consistently making the correct play or in the correct position, forming a deadly duo with mid laner Maple.

Europe May Be The Weakest Major Region

A tournament where Europe had all three of their top teams in attendance, they once again failed to claim the top spot. A region who has been heavily criticized for their international performance over the last year, European fans have little reason to expect different results in the future.

G2 eSports Are Still Europe’s Strongest Team

G2 showed once again that they are Europe's strongest team. After an early loss to Flash Wolves, they stormed back to take a series off of both Unicorns of Love and Korea's ROX Tigers. If there is any hope for Europe as a region, it still lies with G2.

Flash Wolves The Best Team At IEM

The clear best team in the LMS, Flash Wolves proved at IEM they are one of the best teams in the world. Defeating all three of Europe's top teams with a combined 7-1 record, Flash Wolves turned in a performance that proved they are a team to watch internationally.

Money Hasn’t Made M19 Better

Despite a recent surge in investment, M19 (formerly Albus NoX Luna) still has a lot of work to do to be an international contender. A step back from their World Championship performance, M19 looked to be the weakest team at IEM.